Six injured in Assam blast, ULFA blamed

Guwahati, Feb 27 (IANS) At least six people were injured, four of them critically, in a powerful explosion at a crowded marketplace in Assam Wednesday. Police said the blast took place at a busy commercial area in Tezpur, the district headquarters of Sonitpur, about 180 km north of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.

“The bomb was strapped to a bicycle and went off in a market area injuring six people,” a senior police official said over the phone.

Four of the injured were stated to be in critical condition. “The injured were shifted to local hospitals with multiple wounds,” the official said.

The victims were all shoppers and vendors. Police blamed the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), fighting for an independent homeland since 1979, for the explosion.

“The modus operandi of the blast points the needle of suspicion to the ULFA. There are no other militant group active in the area other than the ULFA,” the official said.